page_title: Serious Request
section_title: 2005 – children in the Congo
hierarchical_section_title: Serious Request / 2005 – children in the Congo
caption_attribution_description: 3FM dj Gerard Ekdom in conversation with Prince Willem Alexander van Oranje Nassau.
context_page_description: Serious Request is a family of annual multi-day, multimedia fundraising events for International Red Cross initiatives, typically hosted by radio stations in the week before Christmas. The project was begun in 2004 by Dutch public pop music radio station 3FM. Serious Request projects have since been adopted in Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, Kenya, South Korea, Austria, Latvia and Portugal.
  The DJs make an interactive, themed broadcast around the clock, while regular programming on the station is suspended. Instead 3FM and its website are completely dedicated to the event, which is also transmitted as a continuous audio and video live-stream. Additionally there is television coverage, integration with social media, and a dedicated mobile app.
  Funds are raised in a few different ways. DJs play songs requested by listeners and visitors, in return for their donations. Celebrities and artists also donate personal possessions or offer unique opportunities to meet them, which are auctioned off. Straightforward donations are made into the project's bank-account, and by physical visitors depositing cash and cheques into the house's letterbox.
context_section_description: From 19 to 24 December 2005, a glass house was again present at the Neude in Utrecht. That year's DJs were Giel Beelen, Gerard Ekdom and Wouter van der Goes, and the slogan was: Red een kind in Congo (Save a child in the Congo). Money was collected for children, some of them former child soldiers, in the Republic of the Congo, raising a total of €2,203,549, including a €1,000,000 contribution from the Dutch government. The appeal was awarded the 2006 Gouden Radio-Oortje for best radio program of the year. The song Multiply by Jamie Lidell became the 'Serious Request anthem' for the edition.
caption: DJ Gerard Ekdom entered the house in 2005 — like Beelen, he returned another seven times.
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